To: The
Steering Committee of the U.S. Green Party and the
Presidential Exploratory Committee of the Green Party

From: Ralph Nader

Date: December 22, 2003

I am writing to withdraw my name from consideration as a potential nominee
for the Green Party presidential ticket in 2004.

I write this with regret because of my support for your platform and
civic activities, because of our shared political history and because of
the numerous efforts I have made, over the years since 1996, to help grassroots
Greens build the Party. Since running as your nominee in 2000 through
all 50 states - from the disenfranchised Anacostia in Washington, D.C.
to corporate-dominated Alaska, from downtown Hartford to the pilot industrial
hemp field of Hawaii (not to mention those states where we had to help
build the party from scratch) -- I have met with Greens from around the
country and the world, scheduled and completed more than 45 fundraisers
in some 30 states, assisted in starting the Campus Greens and supported
more than a few state and local Green candidates. I remain a registered
Independent. But my efforts to build the Green Party and my public
contributions on issues of importance to Greens can be compared favorably
with those who wear their Green Party registrations as some badge or bona
fides.

More recently, as part of my exploratory effort, I have met or spoken
with Greens from all over the country in extensive conversations, heard
from even more through sign-on letters, Kucinich supporters, Greens for
Dean, state and local Green groups, newspaper and magazine accounts, including
the Green Pages and Green Horizon, etc., all of which illustrate how the
reaction to George W. Bush, has fractured - more than galvanized -- the
Greens as a Party. Most individuals have the best intentions, and
there are people who have now dedicated years to help building the Greens.
However, many of the communications I have received express volumes about
the maturity of the Greens as a political party.

Although its growth has been slower than many of us would like, the
Green Party at least remains poised to respond to the voters' desire for
a third party. The failure of the two major parties both to engage
100 million nonvoters and to provide existing voters with choices over
a broad range of important issues has been a continual reality for Greens.
With this in mind, uncertainty expressed by the Party's leadership regarding
the conditions under which the Party may or may not field Presidential
and Vice-presidential candidates in 2004 can only be interpreted is a confused
retreat.

Specifically, the Steering Committee has declared in reference to whether
"the Green Party will (or won't) run a high- (or low-) profile candidate
for President in 2004, and that the candidate will (or won't) drop out
in their (sic) run for the Presidency before Election day, possibly making
some kind of accommodation (or not) with the Democrats and their candidate!"
that:

"The truth is, no one person or group of persons, inside or
outside of the Green Party will make those types of critical decisions
in the Green Party. The strategy the Green Party pursues will be
arrived at through a comprehensive process that is beginning now and will
go on in every state Green Party, either through conventions or primaries.
The conventions and primaries will in turn select delegates from every
state Green Party who will come together at our National Convention in
the summer of 2004 to make a final, collective decision as to whether the
Green Party will run a presidential candidate, and, if so, who that person
will be."

(First emphasis in the original, underlines added. Source: Green Party
of the United States mailing signed by members of the Steering Committee
June 5, 2003. See, as just two of many additional recent examples,
Dec. 16, 2003 USGP Proposal to Create a Presidential Support Committee,
"whether we will have a Presidential candidate is not 100% settled"; Oct
28, 2003 National Press Release, "The decision about whom, how, and whether
to run in the 2004 national election will be made democratically by all
the accredited state Green Parties at the Milwaukee convention." (Emphasis
added.))

The occasion for this letter is not simply that there are robust contending
views about whether to have a Presidential candidate and under which strategies
and conditions, but that - should I decide to run -- it is not feasible
within the difficult parameters of state and federal election laws to wait
and see what the Green Party will do in June 2004. Indeed, the framework
and schedule you have chosen for making a decision seems itself tilted
against anyone contemplating a serious run, as your nominee. Many
grassroots Greens who have views contrary to this procedure are not, nor
are they going to be, in control of how this decision is going to be made
or unmade. It has already been made.

I cannot, nor could any serious potential candidate, embark on a committed
campaign for President as a Green Party nominee when the Party will not
even be certain whether or how it wishes to run a candidate until June
2004. Nor would it be tolerable (not to mention counterproductive
for ballot lines, local candidates, party growth and vote totals), for
the Party to impose on its nominee varying geographical limits to campaigning.
Nor, under such ambiguous conditions could a committed candidate run the
risk that individual state parties would prevent the national nominee access
to their ballot lines for whatever conceived motives, with little penalty
for nonacquiescence to the convention decision. The deadlines for
obtaining ballot access in many states come due prior to, or around your
convention's decision. Were I to become a candidate, I would not
want to launch a campaign with such an uncertain compass regarding what
should be a bedrock, genetic determination to run presidential and vice-presidential
candidates all out - which is what, after all, national political parties
-- as opposed to movements -- do.

As you know, I have scrupulously refrained from interfering in any internal
Green Party matters. For purposes of encouraging more intensive and
resourceful initiatives, I have commented on the need to expand the number
of state Green offices through more assiduous fundraising and on the importance
of running more candidates. The Green Party has endless opportunities
to field candidates, especially among the 2.5 million elective offices
at the state and local levels, many of which offer no opposition to the
incumbents by the other major party. Given the absence of decision
that has been effectively formalized into an unchanging, misguided national
procedure on the presidential front, I submit that 2004 might be the year
that the Green Party makes a deeper commitment to building the party through
state and local candidacies. I and many Greens concur that this is
the Party's clearest present strength and will be the source of its important
talent in the future. During the 2001, 2002 and 2003 elections, Greens
won approximately twenty-five percent of the local offices they contested.

Accordingly, for the reasons described above, I am withdrawing my name
from consideration and wish the Party and its local community adherents
the best in their future endeavors. I still believe that Americans
deserve more political parties and better choices than the rhetoric and
offerings of the two major parties. I believe in giving people real
power to achieve solutions to the problems we have today and in the long
term potential for a reorganized Green Party. In the event that I
should still decide to become a presidential candidate, any collaborative
efforts that are possible, especially at the state and local level, would
be welcome.